In the United States, an estimated 1.5 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury annually. Such traumatic brain injuries are incurred in a number of manners, such as through falls, vehicle accidents, violence, sport injuries, explosive blasts and combat injuries. People with traumatic brain injuries suffer from wide-ranging physical and psychological effects that may appear immediately after the injury or even appear much later. Symptoms include but are not limited to loss of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, headache, nausea or vomiting, fatigue or drowsiness, changes in sleeping patterns, loss of balance, dizziness, and vision changes. The quality of life of traumatic brain injury patients may be significantly impacted through such debilitating symptoms.
One of the fundamental processes with which people interact with the world is through the visual system. The visual system is one of the main areas that are affected by a traumatic brain injury. The loss or even a small impairment of a patient's visual system can mean day-to-day activities, such as cooking, reading, bathing, buying groceries, become difficult or impossible to complete. Further, when a visual system has been damaged, it impacts all systems and the deficits are devastating as vision is the process of deriving meaning from what is seen. It is a complex system that is learned and developed from childhood. The ability to rehabilitate such visual impairment is important to help traumatic brain injury patients recover and return to their normal lives.
Existing visual treatments primarily occur in office with the assistance of a visual therapist using traditional vision therapy (VT). Traditional vision therapy consists mainly of a progressive program of vision exercises, visual stimuli, or procedures conducted under the supervision of a therapist. Such treatment may be supplemented with in-home activities to be performed by the patient on his or her own.